After finishing last season as district runner up, Westside’s girls varsity volleyball team is back this season with  new coach Korrine Bowers at the helm. The team has also been training extensively in the offseason. Returning player Morgan Mumford explained the offseason workouts.

“We held a lot of open gyms at the end of the season, also we’ve had summer conditioning and have had different camps at Creighton and UNO,” Mumford said.

Under the new coach, the team atmosphere has changed for the better. The team will have a different outlook on the game.

“As a team, we are a lot more serious in practices compared to last year, the intensity has gone up in a good way, we enjoy the sport as a whole more and are playing more as a team than as individuals,” Mumford said.

During the offseason,  the team has partaken in team bonding activities such as a bear crawl video challenge on Twitter, where team members recorded themselves doing bear crawls while getting creative, which ended up being a within-team competition. These contribute to the overall team morale. Despite the change in culture, there was no change in team goals.

“We still want to play the game with 100 percent effort,” Mumford said.

Although the team has lost key junior Brooklyn James to an ACL tear and surgery, there are other members on the team to keep an eye on.

“Definitely look out for our senior Liz Robinson, and freshman Madilyn Siebler,” Mumford said.

With key returning members, a new coach and up and coming freshmen, look out for the girls volleyball team is aiming high for this Fall.

The team is off to a 2-4 season with three set wins over Lincoln Northeast and Bellevue East after beginning the year at the Bellevue West Invite last weekend.